It is generally known to store a number of items of motor vehicle data within the vehicle, such as, for example, data that is known from the manufacturing process, or data occurring during operation of the vehicle. For example, the chassis identification number, which is inseparably connected to a motor vehicle, could not only be embossed into the vehicle chassis, but also be stored electronically in a memory of the vehicle.
It is also known to store operational data, such as miles traveled, in a memory of the vehicle, and to make such data available for retrieval, for example, by service shops. It is known, for instance, to provide the key of a motor vehicle with a memory in which such mileage data is stored, so that when the key is handed over to a service shop, the service shop can directly access such relevant information by reading out the memory in the key.
In this prior procedure, it is considered to be disadvantageous that the data written into the electronic memory is usually accessible only to authorized repair shops and dealers. Furthermore, it is only when the vehicle is taken to a dealer or authorized repair shop that such dealer or repair shop has access. Thus, vehicle-related information arising during the life of a particular motor vehicle is neither available to the manufacturer, nor to a dealer or authorized repair shops.
However, such information is of particular interest especially to motor vehicle manufacturers, because they usually endeavor to continuously improve their vehicles, and because such improvements should take into account data obtained from vehicles. Until now, manufacturers had to subject their vehicles to extended field tests (i.e., merely internal tests), in order to obtain data from the vehicles for purposes of vehicle improvement and optimization. The prior art does not provide the ability to obtain data related to a motor vehicle from the day-to-day use, and thus, throughout the life of a vehicle, from first registration to scrapping.